Thursday, March 18, 2010

St. Patty's Day Dinner!

Which will be roughly a week late, because it's still in the planning stages. In fact, it's barely even a plan because I have yet to invite anyone to it. And I want it to be BIG! I love big dinners. However, because I am excited about all things irish, and because yesterday was St. Patrick's day so I still have GREEN on the mind, I'm going to start planning the food I want to make right now. And beware, I may have relied heavily on TastyKitchen! Hold on to your coattails boys and girls!

The Appetizer:

Blue Cheese and Irish Cheddar Gougeres

These babies from TastyKitchen have three VERY scrumptious sounding main ingredients (two of which can be found in their name): Blue Cheese, Irish Cheddar, and Dry White Wine. I'm going to start making these an hour before I tell everyone to come over, so that when people arrive these little suckers will have just been taken out of the oven and will be ready to eat!

The Main Dish:

Authentic Corned Beef and Cabbage

This picture is just a random picture of corned beef and cabbage because the recipe I'm going to use doesn't come with a picture. St. Patrick's day dinner is just not the same if it doesn't have corned beef. I loooove corned beef SO MUCH but I get it less than once a year (because there isn't always a St. Patty's dinner) so to skip it on this important day is just sacrilegious. At least in my eyes. The TastyKitchen corned beef recipe I found looks delicious, and comes with a perfect score in its ratings. It claims to be a recipe from an old irish pub, and just that fact makes it sound even more perfect for the dinner I'm planning!

The Sides:

Bangers and Mash

Bangers and Mash is apparently the irish way of saying sausage and mashed potatoes. And wow, I like their way of saying it! This side is actually labeled as a main dish in TastyKitchen, I guess because of the sausage, but I'm still going to make it anyways, probably just because of the name. I think it's actually the only side I'm going to do because the corned beef is made with cabbage, so we'll have cabbage, mashed potatoes and sausage all as sides. Does that sound good enough? I was also thinking of making some type of bread item, although I'm not sure I need to because I'm making the Gougeres for an appetizer. Thoughts anyone?

The Dessert:

Irish Potatoes

I actually really don't like irish potatoes. The main ingredient is coconut, and for some reason I can't make myself chew and swallow coconut. Unless it's in a pina colada, but in that case it doesn't have the waxy gross texture, which is where my problem with it lies. BUT. Just like corned beef, St. Patty's dinner is just not St. Patty's dinner without some irish potatoes, so they will be made! I'm going to be calling up my mom for the recipe on this one. I'm also looking for ideas for another irish dessert... any suggestions?

So that will be my St. Patrick's Day (A Week Late) Dinner! I'm looking forward to it! I will of course also be decorating the place with lots and lots of green, and I will probably be serving Guiness as a drink. Wish me luck!

4 comments:

Bangers and mash as a side? You will be so full! Maybe just make the mash? And no you don't need more bread after a bread appetizers and starchy potatoes on the side!

And may I suggest you not make the Irish Potato things you don't like? That's just silly. Make these instead, I've been drooling over them all day: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/irish-car-bomb-brownie-bites/